Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Stayed overnight in school. That would explain why this is the second post in a row that is uploaded in the early morning. One student actually worked on his thesis until around midnight in the X-ray room. The other student is either in the solid state or the optics lab.

Since I posted so early yesterday, today I'll be relating mostly what happened starting from when the work day began.

Thankfully my fifty minute make up classes for the next three Tuesdays and Thursdays were approved. Not that the students are happy about it. I even went so far as to tell them it's okay if they don't all show up, as long as I do.

The students are already petitioning that I be their teacher for Mathematical Methods 2 next term, even though not all of them are sure of passing, and even though the students who are already predicting failing in MM2 have only gone so far as to say hi in the hall.

As far as I know my load assignment is already full for next term, so we'll see. It's always a mixed emotion when I see that students prefer me to another teacher.

Just checked with the secretary. There is a non-block section of MM1 offered next term, but no MM2. So what about the students who pass my MM1 course this term? And those who fail in the MM2 course this term? They have to wait until first term of next year?

Only five out of eleven students showed up for my lunch time make up class, which is more than I had expected. Of course it turns out that during that same time an audition for a system-wide presentation (Christmas?) was held. And probably the rest had a late lunch.

I also came up with a new way of showing the students their midterm standings. It's arranged in descending order of grades, and doesn't show their names or their ID numbers (since some are new students for this term and didn't give their ID numbers during their first day of class - which is actually the second week already). When they ask, I give them a small strip of paper (cut out from a class list) which gives their name and their ranking.

This way they know how well they are doing in the subject relative to their classmates, and if they want to tell the others what their rank is, they can. But they won't hear it from me.